會贓埋人 He Always Frames People
師父要打我幾下，寧可忍疼。背著他決不得乾淨，師兄一生會贓埋人。我馱，不成。」师父要打我几下，宁可忍疼。背着他决不得干净，师兄一生会赃埋人。我驮，不成。」
逐句解 Line by line
If the master wants to hit me a few times, I would sooner bear the pain.
In 寧可 the 寧 is nìng, the "would rather" reading, not the níng of peace and quiet. He is choosing a beating, and choosing it first.
Carrying her on my back, I shall certainly not come out of it clean. Elder brother has spent his whole life planting stolen goods on people.
背 is bēi here, the verb, to carry on the back — not the bèi that is the back itself. 贓埋人 is to bury loot on somebody so it can be found on them: to frame. And 乾淨 takes gān, exactly as it did in Pilgrim's mouth a few passages earlier — both brothers are worried about coming out of this clean.
Carry her I will not."
Four characters, and it is the only flat refusal anybody gives in the whole chapter.
Bajie would rather be beaten than carry her, and he says so in that order — the punishment first, the reason second. For a character who avoids work on principle this is a remarkable position to take.
His reason is not modesty. It is that he does not trust his brother not to manufacture the very scandal he has just been teased about. Given that Pilgrim has spent the last four passages constructing legal scenarios about fornication charges, the fear is not unreasonable.
And underneath the comedy he is the only member of the party who declines to touch her. Sha Monk carries the baggage, Tripitaka gives the orders, Pilgrim herds her along at rod's length — and the greedy one, the one nobody trusts, is the one who says no.